It’s a Tuesday Dynamite! It’s “Title Tuesday”! Back in my day on the Tumblr web app, people had titty Tuesday, which is different. It was a better, simpler time.
AEW World Trios Title: Death Triangle (c) vs Orange Cassidy & Best Friends
There’s four belts out here, counting Orange’s “All-Atlantic” title, and I couldn’t possibly care about a single one of them. Excalibur, Taz, and Tony talk about some baseball, Tony remembers when Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati was the Riverfront Coliseum. Stuff about how the Reds, Braves, and Mets are all playing golf. Penta’s in his stupid Joker costume. A tame version of a PWG match. Fenix doesn’t want PAC to do cheating. PAC sells everything in such incredible, ridiculous fashion. His crumbling on Orange’s big punch is Steamboat+ punch selling. Fenix demolishes Trent for the finish. This is good and fun, if you care more about this stuff you probably liked it even more than me! 3/5
AEW Interim Women’s Title: Toni Storm (c) vs Hikaru Shida
I run really hot and cold on Storm. I like Shida a lot. Taz says “moveset” out loud. That’s a shame. Schiavone rightly points out that this is more purely physical than you might expect coming in, more slugging and stuff than any fast-paced trading of offense or the like. Shida works on the neck a bit. Meteora from Shida looks brutal. Storm’s release German is ugly in a way that works, Taz breaks down suplex form and I love it, he can say “moveset.” Some big bombs traded late to pick this up. Shida PLANTED on a spinning DDT, Storm Zero finishes right after. Good stuff. Consider this a “hot” Storm night. Post-match, Hayter and Rebel attack, Dr. Britt gets a full entrance with a Steelers jersey, and then Saraya interrupts to tackle Britt, hell yeah! Paige here! Riho returns! Rebel takes a big bump on a dropkick, Riho flattens Hayter on a dive to the floor. Business is picking up. 3.5/5
MJF and William Regal promo
Wrestling is good, actually.
ROH World Title: Chris Jericho (c) vs Dalton Castle
It’s crazy that 51-year-old Jericho is probably closer to peak condition than 36-year-old Castle, but Dalton has done so well to adjust his style to the injury issues, and he’s a guy who has belonged in a bigger spotlight for years. Dalton has four Boys with him, and Jericho has Jake Hager. Castle doing some manhandling early, just showing off a lot of strength with a bunch of gutwrenches that lead to no throw, and Taz isn’t a big fan of using that much energy. Taz does not think Castle is ready for “The Moment.” Taz does not enjoy Dalton and The Boys. The Boys get what’s for after messing with Hager, which he seems to not be so bothered by, but then one of them takes his hat and that’s a bridge too far. A good match, Jericho of course retains with the Judas Effect. They did a lot of different stuff here, some of it smoke and mirrors, some of it just good pro wrestling. I wasn’t naturally super into it and it never dragged me to that point, but I liked it. Ian Riccaboni is about to get the what’s-for but Jerry Lynn saves him and gets the what’s-for himself as Jericho tombstones him on the stage. We’ll pretend it looked good or that maybe some other move couldn’t have been done. Even Taz may have had it with Jericho and his Appreciation Society. 3/5
AEW World Title: Jon Moxley (c) vs Adam Page
First things first, obviously the most important thing here is that Page gets concussed before the match can end as designed, and it was definitely scary. Page was ultimately OK, and that’s great news. As he said the next day, huge credit there to the referee, to Moxley, and to the AEW staff who got in there quickly. Also a reminder of how physical everything really is, and that even with two of the best in the world, shit happens sometimes. But I also don’t want to just ignore that these two put on a damn good world title battle before that happened. It’s not really important, but they were showing why they are who they are and why they are where they are, too.
SO!
The match: Moxley has the home field advantage in Cincinnati. Hangman doesn’t give Moxley his full crowd entrance shtick, heading out to meet him and start the fight there. Page hits a moonsault dive out there before he even gets his vest off. You’ll never believe it but Moxley gets busted open before the bell even officially sounds to start the match once they get inside, after which they immediately head back outside and Moxley takes a whip into the steps, where the camera just fully zones in on him while we watch him reach into his mouth, blade further, and then ditch the razor in the hole on the side of the steps. Mox almost begging off inside the ring, he’s getting that heat from the Hangman here, but a kick to the head seems to almost wake him up a bit more and he calls on more punishment, which Page is happy to dish out. This is just a fight, and a good one, not just brawl-y, but just intense wrestling, hard-hitting. Page hits a Deadeye on the apron, they fight some more outside, then Page slows it down a bit with a half-crab, and Moxley battles out into an STF style with a choke, just blatantly going with something illegal to try and even things up. More big offense, Page hits a great Comebacker, then eats a monster lariat from Moxley, and that’s where they end. It’s a hell of a match, really, which was just about to kick into one more gear. They’ll run it back and they’ll be great again.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 